Sticker Sale, Commissions, and the Future of Porn in my Work (Patreon)

First off, I'd like to announce that all of our stickers in the merch shop are currently half-price for the next thirty days! This includes our newest one here featuring Madelyne Pryor. Enter the code Summer2024 during checkout to apply your discount if you're interested.

Secondly, you might have already noticed that I've re-listed commission waiting list access as a $10 reward here. The list is currently open again for supporters on that tier. If you're new here, the reason I've always set it at that level is that it keeps the list from getting too big for me to handle. And even then it doesn't always work. It took me two years to finish the last list I opened in 2022.

I usually try to discourage supporters from upping their pledges only for the sake of commission access, though. Some warnings: with a few notable exceptions I normally choose names with a randomizer tool, it could be literally years before I get to your name, and my prices start at $125 for one character and $65 for each additional one. That said, I try to manage at least two commissions per month to keep the list moving at a decent clip, you don't have to stay pledged at $10 to remain on the list after your initial buy in, and to my knowledge I've never left a client unhappy with the work. If you do decide to join that tier, send me a PM on the Discord server and I'll get you on the list while it's still open.

Lastly, the porn. It's been two months since my personal troubles came crashing down. And while I'm not back to a hundred percent by a long shot, I feel more stable now. With a clearer head, I'm wondering if going 100% R-rated was a bit of an over-correction to my issues at the time. 

I was hesitant to bring this up at first. I feel kind of stupid, making such a bold declaration of a change in direction only to waffle on it barely two months later. But it's clear to me now that the difference between being hardcore porn artist or a softcore porn artist really isn't going to make much of a tangible difference in the grand scheme of the problems that arose for me. As far as my social standing is concerned, I'm still drawing smutty cartoons at the end of the day, and whether they're R-rated or X-rated really won't move the needle much as to how my content is perceived by those around me. So it's either quit the whole comic or continue and rethink things. I choose to continue.

The recent Morgan and Warren scene was the first one to test my new direction, so I'll break down what I liked and didn't like. I liked that it was snappier, more quickly paced. Not slowed down with gratuitous penetration close ups and focused more on the relationship dynamics between the two partners involved. I also don't miss the page taking a couple extra hours to make while I arduously paint gallons of semen that I have to place correctly depending on where it landed on the woman in every single panel. (In that last one with Casey and Fontaine, it took me a whole extra day.)

That said, having no money shot at all just felt wrong. I can't shake the feeling that without them, TRW is giving up too much of its identity. It also hit me in this scene that with this new direction, male nudity is out the window and that will be very limiting to me in the future. Softcore scenes allow for man-ass-shots only and you can guess how I appealing I find those by how I almost never fucking do them.

So what's the play here, then? I'm leaning towards a middle ground of sorts. Shorter scenes without close up penetration panels bogging things down, more panels featuring angles that leave something to the imagination, but not censoring/omitting all penetration entirely. And still present semen/ejaculations but in smaller, more realistic volume rather than the bucket loads I've been showing in the past.

I'm no longer all that enthused about drawing high school characters having explicit sex. But maybe instead of trying to rush the end of the comic to start something new, I should instead try to focus on just expediting the Castlewood class to graduation day, and continue their stories from there.

It's a lot to consider. If it's one thing that this year has taught me it's that your whole life can change in the blink of an eye. What feels right today may feel wrong tomorrow. I no longer think I should make big declarations about the future of my work, and I'm just going to keep making comics every week for as long as I'm able to, featuring whatever content feels natural to me as I go. In the meantime your feedback would be very valuable if you have it.